Vibration Analysis Level 3 Certification

Just about completed conducting the level 3 certification course. The course was held at the Power Management Institute of NTPC, Noida. 19 participants attended the course and challenged the test, which was at the end of the four day training. Lot of learning and exchange took place and at the end of it all the participants felt empowered.

I always like to come back to PMI as I have done for the past three years but don't know how far I would be able to continue because of my failing health. It is always a great experience to learn!

System Thinking

System Thinking is nothing new. It was there for years. We find evidence of this in Mayan civilization.

Click this link to learn more on this:
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=7633

Continuing Education for Engineers

Engineers play with concepts, physical laws and economic laws.

But while interacting with engineers from industries I find that most of them have forgotten to play. And the primary reason is that the subjects of Physics and Mathematics, the bedrock of engineering are not taught properly in the formative years. And therefore these subjects are forgotten after the first few years of an engineer's professional practice.

The good news is that the interest can be revived again.

While Physics is to taught through physical models, Mathematics must be taught through physical and graphical methods.

In that way people easily remember the concepts that empowers them to play and create new things and solve existing problem.

That is what engineers are meant to do well enough to serve society.

Going for Innovation is scary business

Now-a-days it is fahionable to talk about innovation. Most companies dream of turning their well oiled regular company into a classy innovative company about which even their competitors would discuss in a hushed tone that would ooze with respect.

All that sounds exciting. Very exciting, if I may say so. But the reality is something quite different. Most companies even with a lot of honest intention and effort fail to take off in the innovative direction.

And why is it so? There are many reasons. Here we shall highlight the most important reason.

To my mind the most important reason is the 'initial fright'. Innovation essentially involves 'change'. Over time most of us feel happy, secure and contented with what we think and do regularly. The feeling of security comes from routine and not from sudden disruption or changes. But innovation is all about disruption and changes in the way we think and go about doing what we think and know to be right. It is then natural that our mind detest sudden changes and therefore revolts. At the back of the mind the very thought of learning something new all over again is unnerving.

So how do we handle this 'fright'? We may effectively overcome such fright in three ways.

The easiest is to keep trying slowly and go with the flow. Changes automatically happen provided we keep thinking how or what we might do better.

The next way is to remember the adage 'Forgetting is more important than Learning'. We simply can't learn because the mind doesn't like to forget. Hence the mind has to be trained to forget our old ways of doing things.

The third way is by far the most difficult of the three. Only a few of us can achieve it. I call this third method as 'Playing and having Fun'. In this method we just enjoy doing what we do and take it up with the spirit of play. The play brings out the new concepts and ideas to enjoy better. And sooner or later we develop new ideas and concepts to do things in a better way. The best thing I like about the process is changes, even very disrupting changes, tend to happen effortlessly.

So why not enjoy and be happy.

Signing off for now,

Yours,
Dibyendu

Bottom up

Over the last 30 years of my professional life I have come to realize that the heart of any improvement process lies right at the bottom of the traditional organisational chart, i.e. the workers.

I understand that the word robot means the worker. So they are supposed to work with their hands and not supposed to use their mind or their heart for that matter. So treat them as another extention of the machines they work with.

When such an attitude is carried around for a long time the bottom dries up. It is no longer attractive to even look at. Management fails to pay the right attention. And over time the organisation goes into the red, little realizing that all the stored energy and talent needed for renewal and transformation lay in that often neglected place.

So there is an urgent need to improve the lot of the bottom. This may only be done through education, coaching and mentoring. Otherwise the bottom would sooner or later suck in the organisation.

So we now have a plan. We are helping Tega to open a technical training institute where school drop outs from nearby villages can join to learn some basic skills to get employed in industries.

It would help the drop out who would, otherwise, have nothing better to do. It would also help the industries and society at large.

The institute would start from October.

Mr D Bhattacharya made a fine observation -- Most people walk into a work area with a blank frame of mind. They have no clear idea about what to look at. Then they accidentally pick up on something and try to either spin a long yarn out of it or try to create a storm over a cup of hot tea. This is how most people spend their day in the workplace.